


How to Care for your Teakling

by DarthLivion (DistantShenanigans)



Series: alien bitters au [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Alien Mythology/Religion, Alien Rituals, Alien!Bitters, Canon Typical Violence, Crushes, Gen, M/M, Magic, Magical Tattoos, Major Original Character(s), Nothing explicit, Original Alien Character/Charles Palomo - Freeform, Original Character Death(s), Racism against non-humans, Team Dad!Andersmith, alien magic, racism against humans, sort of character study
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 07:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9373718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantShenanigans/pseuds/DarthLivion
Summary: When he was twelve, he lost his mother and sister to racist Feds. He grew up in the care of John Andersmith, who tried to get him to be proud of who he was. Instead, he hid himself from the others, afraid of being hurt. He hid his alien heritage from everyone, except Kimball and Matthews.Joining up with the Feds changed everything.or: Bitters is part alien, and finally has to deal with people knowing it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing, but Teaklings and Mosterians. Though I haven't quite developed Mosterians, so y'all can use the name and make your own aliens if you want tbh, just share with me please because I love aliens???

It wasn't that Bitters wasn't human. Those that knew about him didn't give a shit. True, it was just all of three people, one being Kimball, and the other two being Andersmith and Matthews, but it still stood that they didn't care he was a Teakling, and not Human. And, yeah, he was still mostly human, but still, he had a part of his heritage that wasn't, and it kind of showed when he was out of his armor, so he hid the fact and hid in his armor.

Unfortunately, things took a weird turn, and now they were working _with_ the Feds, and they had a doctor who wanted to do check ups of every Rebel so they could be treated medically. More unfortunately, Teaklings were a dying race and he was afraid that the crazy doctor lady was going to be weird about him. This also meant he'd have to tell Captain Grif and everyone else.

He wasn't looking forward to it, but he was a Lieutenant, and they were forced to go after their captains went. Others had their helmets off, but he didn't. He didn't want to show his leaves that grew among his strange, dark blue hair, or his ears that grew in sharp and pointed, and brown and green, and very obviously not human. His eyes were a pale frost colour, though they weren't quite white and not quite blue. He was nineteen, young for a Teakling, not quite an adult. It was similar to the aging of humans, but still slow in comparison. He was nervous, and he wondered if it was still too late to back out of it.

“Lieutenant Bitters!” His name was called, and he bit his lower lip. He walked into medical, and saw General Doyle standing with the doctor, Green or Grey or something. He hadn't been paying attention when Agent Washington briefed them. General Kimball was there too, along with the captains, the freelancers, their friends, and his fellow lieutenants.

“I wasn't told there was going to be an audience!” Bitters snapped. Pushing away had to be better than letting it happen without a fight.

“Under... other, circumstances, there wouldn't be. However there are several among the rebel soldiers who are... similar, to you.” Kimball was dancing around the word _alien_. She was because Bitters wasn't an alien to Chorus, because Bitters had been born on-world and had lost his mother and sister to racists among the Feds. More reason to not trust them, more reason to fear them.

“Dude, my kid isn't human. If someone has a problem, you can come to us. We'll kick any racist asshole into fucking orbit for you.” Captain Tucker beat the elephant in the room with a bazooka, and for some reason, it was reassuring. He closed his eyes, and removed his helmet.

“ _Whoa_.” Palomo and Jensen breathed.

“Oh my! You're most certainly not human!” The doctor said, “But, I will do my best to look after you! Come on, strip down and change behind the curtain!” He was handed a standard hospital gown, and all he could think of was how nice it must have been for their injured to have that, instead of suffering in their armor.

He changed behind the curtain, and felt awkward when he left, showing the brown and green bark-looking parts of his body. He had squishy human parts, but in awkward spots. His chest was human, but then it would spout outwards with parts that claimed his Teakling heritage.

“I must admit, I was not expecting... this.” Doyle stated, “When you said he was only part human, I assumed... more human than not.”

“This is mostly human.” Andersmith spoke up. “His mother was half human, and his father was completely human.” He appreciated that Andersmith was keeping him from having to talk about it himself, but he wasn't appreciating being talked about as if he weren't there, or couldn't hear them.

“Fascinating. What species are you? Certainly not Sangheili.” The doctor woman asked, and Bitters felt better answering this question, than the others.

“I'm a Teakling.” He replied, “Or, partly, at least.”

“A- A _Teakling_?” Doyle sounded surprised. “I thought they were all wiped out?” Bitters felt his stomach tighten in a ball of guilt, and he knew his expression went from neutral to heart broken. “Oh I... I mean, my predecessor-”

“Shut up, Doyle, you're making it worse.” Kimball snapped, “Bitters, we talked about this. You might not be the last one. They could have fled, could have sought shelter among the non-populated areas of Chorus.” That was true, but the likelihood of that was slim, wasn't it?

“Right...” He didn't tell her how little he believed that, and left the doctor begin her system of ensuring he was alright. It took several minutes, thirty at most, before she started talking to them.

“Well, for a human, he's as healthy as possible. Unfortunately, I have no idea about Teakling standards of health; if he were say, a Sangheili, or even a Mosterian, I'd know everything, but Teaklings? Their records were destroyed before I could study them.” Fan-fucking-tastic. “Lieutenant Bitters, is there _anything_ that you know that I need to know as well?”

“Not really? I mean, I know I'm still a kid to them.” Bitters told her. “Probably the equivalent of sixteen or seventeen?”

“And your chronological age in terms of human-counted years?” She asked.

“Nineteen.”

“Alright.” She wrote it down on a datapad, and Bitters had a feeling she was starting a record for him, or for his species entirely.

“But I'm also mostly human, so it could be different. I might be wrong.” She looked up at him.

“I know, sweetheart. Go ahead and get dressed again. We're done here, unless one of the captains or agents have any questions.”

“I do! How do you guys reproduce?” Donut asked, and Bitters tensed up.

“Donut! That's not an appropriate question!” Captain Simmons shouted as Bitters fled to behind the curtain to change.

Yeah, he was definitely going to let Andersmith handle the questions from now on.

=0=0=0=

“You know, he didn't mean anything by it.” Andersmith found him in their room, watching an old re-run of a shitty cartoon about enemies becoming friends to fight an asshole who had been fucking their new friends up.

“I don't know what you are referring to.” He stated calmly. Andersmith sighed, and sat on the edge of the bed.

“They're going to ask you everything you know eventually, Antoine.”

“And I'm going to avoid everything they ask me, Dad.” It was a small joke, something that had been becoming increasingly more real as time went on. Andersmith had taken Bitters in when he was twelve, when he saw his mother and sister die by the Feds. He grew up on the Rebel base after that. It was a joke to call Andersmith _dad_ , after six years of hating him. The past year went from joking sarcasm, to being afraid to admit that he really did see the older lieutenant as a parent. Kimball was probably waiting for them to come sign official adoption forms or something.

“You know, part of me is starting to believe you're sincere when you call me that.” Andersmith's voice was soft as he said it, and Bitters frowned, pausing the show playing on his datapad.

“I'm... starting to believe that, too.” He admitted, refusing to look up at the human. A small chuckle escaped the older man.

“You've got a long day ahead of you, with that scouting mission. Come back safe, alright? We can discuss the title thing after you return.” Bitters hesitated, but nodded. He had no idea what that meant, but he knew that he'd be crushed if Andersmith didn't accept the title, since the man _had_ taken him in and cared for him for the past seven years.

He didn't sleep.

=0=0=0=

“Ready to go?” Palomo was _excited_ to go on the scouting mission, but Bitters was most definitely _not_. He was exhausted, and he'd barely touched his breakfast, before shoving it over to Jensen and going to get ready. It was a simple mission, supposedly. Scout out the areas that could provide food and shelter, in case things go to shit and they had to evacuate Armonia.

Bitters didn't really care, honestly.

“Yeah, 'm good, let's go.” He told the human. Captain Grif and Captain Tucker were ahead of the group, with Agent Washington and Sarge. Matthews was somewhere in the group, but that was all of the people Bitters actually knew.

They began moving out, and Bitters slacks off and falls to the back of the group. They're all silent, and Bitters can tell they're just as nervous and tense as he was when he first joined the New Republic Army. It clicks to him just why that is, because it's the same reason he was.

They weren't human, or at least not completely human.

“So... Who else is nervous around the Feds?” He decided to strike up a conversation, though he isn't sure why. One looked at him, but didn't respond. For whatever reason, he continued to talk. “I mean, I know some of the Rebels are scary, but hey, at least most aren't racist like several Feds have been. When I was a kid? Yeah, they killed my mom because she wasn't completely human. My sister too.” That got their attention, and one spoke up.

“Doctor Grey was nice about it, and so was General Doyle, and the captains and their friends and all, but... I'm still scared.” She sounded young, about his age when he joined the army. He was sure she was Matthews' age, at fifteen.

“Yeah, they were great. And Captain Tucker's kid? He ain't fully human either. I think his kid is half Sangheili.” Another of the soldiers spoke, and this one sounded more like Palomo's age, at seventeen. “I'm... I'm really glad I'm in Captain Tucker's unit. He... He really sticks up for us. The non-humans, I mean.”

“Yeah? That's nice. He told me he and the others would kick any racist's ass, so... I'm glad they're here.” A third soldier said. She sounded seventeen, too. “Oh! I'm sorry, we never introduced ourselves. I'm Private Tanya Daniels. I'm an eigth Sangheili, but it's apparently still enough to show the non-human stuff...”

“Privates Monik.” The boy said, “I'm Shane, that's my sister, Alice.”

“Nice to meet you.” The fifteen year old said, smiling weakly.

“We're half Mosterians.” Shane said.

“I'm Lieutenant Antoine Bitters.” Bitters introduced himself. “I'm a quarter Teakling.” The three sucked in soft breaths.

“A _Teakling_?” Daniels sounded amazed.

“I thought they were all wiped out!” Alice said, awed.

“Alice!” Shane hissed.

“What!? He probably already knows!” Alice argued. Bitters smiled weakly under his mask.

“She's right, I do already know. But, yeah, I guess you've all heard about my kind, then?”

“Not much.” Daniels shrugged her shoulders. “You guys outlive most species. I think the oldest Teakling on record was... 500 human years old?” Bitters turned to her, eyes wide.

“Are you _serious_?” She nodded.

“My parents worked in the archives, before the war started. The eldest was 500 human years old, and they have something they call _Magic_ , but humans kept claiming it was sciences that the Teaklings refused to share. Something to do with the planet and nature.” Daniels replied, “ _I_ think it was natural mutation for the species. Like how Mosterians can communicate with animals.”

“You guys can talk to animals?” Bitters looked at the brother and sister. Shane nodded.

“I can.” He replied.

“I'm still learning, but I _have_ mastered talking to birds.” Alice seemed proud, and Bitters smiled under his helmet.

“That's... that's really cool.” He admitted.

“Can you talk to the plants, then?” Shane asked.

“No, I can't. I was never taught about magic. I actually didn't even know my kind _had_ magic until now.” The lieutenant admitted, “It's probably a good thing. I can't imagine things going over well when Dad took me in, had I known how to use magic.”

“You have a dad still?” Daniels sounded a bit jealous.

“Er, not biological. He saved me when I was twelve, after my mom and sister were killed by Feds. He took care of me, and he's kind of been my dad since.” Bitters replied, “He's on Captain Caboose's team. Lieutenant Andersmith?”

“... So the other lieutenants... They're good?” Shane asked.

“What do you mean?”

“They're not like the Feds?”

“You mean, they're not racist?” Bitters asked. Shane nodded. “I... No? I mean, Dad obviously isn't, and Jensen hasn't indicated that she is. Palomo... Kind of acted like a dick, once, before we teamed up with the Feds. Captain Tucker kicked his ass about it, but since joining with the Feds? He's been kind of cool. I'd... be cautious? Like, don't think you can't talk to him, but if he says a dickish racist thing, just call him out on it, and he'll figure his shit out. I think he's trying to change, at least. I mean, he joined the Rebels, not the Feds, so there has to be a reason for that.”

“Maybe he's not completely human and it freaks him out?” Shane chuckled a bit.

“What? Like internalized racism?” Daniels laughed.

“It's possible.” Bitters said, “I mean, I don't know if it's a real thing, but if you're raised to think being gay is wrong, and then realize you _are_ gay, then you struggle with that, so what's to say he's learned that he's not fully human?”

“That... makes more sense than I like it to.” Shane said, shaking his head. Bitters shrugged.

“Just tossing thoughts into the open about it.” He replied, “Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he is fully human and is just trying to actively be a better person?”

“Regardless, he's trying, right?” Alice asked. Bitters nodded. “Then he's already a better person.” The four were silent, and Bitters wondered briefly, just why he never tried to find other non-humans among the rebels before.

He wouldn't know this for another two weeks, but he would hate himself for talking to the three younger soldiers, when he finds out they died in battle when he was gone.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Teaklings are based on the Sylvari from Guild Wars 2, because I needed a baseline to branch out from. -shrugs- sorry, kind of useless. Mosterians will be explored later, whether it's in this fic or a later one, IDK, but it'll happen eventually. If not in fic, then on Tumblr. The username is fxckoffblue


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